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Internal Microsoft documents obtained by Joystiq indicate that its Xbox 360 console will gain support for USB storage devices some time this Spring.
"According to the document, the USB mass storage device must be at least 1GB and the system will do a compatibility check. 'The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller.' Upon inserting a blank USB storage device, 'consumers are offered two choices: "Configure now" or "Customize."' The 'Configure now' option will use 'the entire device capacity, up to the maximum of 512 MB plus 16 GB,' meaning, regardless of the overall size of the device you're using, the Xbox will only enable 16 GB of usable, non-system storage. The 'Customize' option will allow you to 'preserve some pre-existing, non-console data on the device' such as music."
There have also been rumors of a new, smaller form factor for the 360, and hacker Ben Heck has given his thoughts on some leaked motherboard pictures.

That was my original goal once I got WiiBrew installed. Sadly, I had a friend gift me several WiiWare titles. I never could get the store upgraded alone via WiiBrew, so I ended up just upgrading my Wii. I only used WiiBrew to add watching DVD movies and streaming video from a network share. As I also got a 360 at about the same time, I did not mind loosing the DVD playing on my Wii.

No updates, no new games. If you're not playing new games, why not buy a cheap DVD player? And watch new consoles come with the new firmware. Remember the old days of PSP hacking, when people would analyze the boxes to find a sign of what firmware they came with?

No updates, no new games. If you're not playing new games, why not buy a cheap DVD player? And watch new consoles come with the new firmware. Remember the old days of PSP hacking, when people would analyze the boxes to find a sign of what firmware they came with?

It almost seems like you are cheerleading their efforts to break someone's setup. The constant updates that these companies are throwing at us now are getting ridiculous. I don't like the idea of not owning the equipment in my home.

It almost seems like you are cheerleading their efforts to break someone's setup.

Once I was looking to develop Wii homebrew games myself. But then I saw two drawbacks.

First, I ran into the so-called "homebrew complexity wall", where a lone developer with a day job will lack the time to provide both high-quality code and high-quality art. In order to replace notoriously bad programmer art, I'd have to charge for my game in order to afford to pay an artist. Reactions to the sale of copies of BootMii-related tools show that the Wii homebrew community likes to keep it strictly non-commer

For another, all Creative Commons licenses are incompatible with all GNU licenses because unlike CC licenses, GNU licenses do not allow authors to require downstream reusers to remove attributions to the author. See Wikisource discussion [wikipedia.org]. As for whether code and other parts of a video game form an "aggregate" that does not require license compatibility, I'm not sure what the GPL [gnu.org] means by "separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extension

In that case, nesdev.com needs you. We're trying to create a collection of low-color clip art [nesdev.com] and clip animations useful for displaying in a 256x224 pixel window, for projects on the NES or in an NES style on other platforms.

Redundancy has its advantages [wikipedia.org]. When you wear out the drive in a $30 DVD player, you're out $30. When you wear out the drive in an unhacked Wii console, you're out $75 for a drive replacement. But when you wear out the drive in a $200 hacked Wii, on the other hand, you're out $200 plus your savegames. HackMii.com appears to be down right now (returning only "502 Bad Gateway"), but it ran a story sometime last year about Nintendo repairing a console with a dead DVD drive after warranty expiration and charging the owner for a whole new Wii because it was found to have been modded.

Is this actually a problem for anyone? Who owns a Wii, doesn't own a DVD player but has a desire to play DVDs? DVD players are so cheap you just go and buy one.

That may be so, but it doesn't explain why the Wii doesn't offer DVD playback even as a feature available for a nominal sum of money. Some people don't like having two devices plugged into their TV when the one they already own is more than adequate for the task.

It's just a pain in the ass. It's much nicer to have one device that does everything. At my mum's house there is a freeview box, PS2 and a Wii. The TV only has 2 SCART inputs too - one of which is taken up by the freeview box. So if the Wii is plugged in and you want to watch a DVD you have to go round the back of the TV and switch the cables around (or use a switcher box as I'm sure some people want to point out).

Compare this to my PS3: I can play my music, watch digital video files, watch TV (with the Pla

I'm surprised I haven't seen PS3 fanboys laughing about this before.. it's even worse than not being able to watch DVDs on your Wii's DVD drive..

The PS3 let's you plug any FAT formatted devices into the PS3 and read / write unprotected content to & from the device. You can also backup your files to a device assuming it has the space. What you can't do is use the disk for ad hoc storage of protected content except through the backup mechanism.

The Xbox plays media content from USB Mass Storage just fine. This is talking about storing game data (savegames, probably DLC and so on), which is at the moment only possible on the internal hdd or custom memory cards.

That's only for Blu-Ray Movies... PS3 games use a different region encoding with numbers [1]=US and Japan [2]= Europe [3]=Asia [4]=Australia, and yes, it is a different numbering scheme than the R1, R2, etc. used for DVDs.

Go check your PS3 box or any of the game cases, they'll have the region logo on the back it's a little square with a portion of a globe and a number.

I've yet to see a game disc that enforces this, however Downloaded content IS region locked, though only to the account (IE: you can us

I haven't had the DVD problem, although to be honest I've played maybe one DVD on the system. I've been doing a LOT of UPnP playback from my media server though.

Could you elaborate on what about the PS3 sucks as bad as the Xbox? For a long time I was on the fence between buying a PS3 or 360, especially once FFXIII for 360 was announced. In the end I went with PS3 due to Blu-Ray. I'm glad I did, the PS3 seems to be COMPLETELY different in terms of Sony attitude compared to most of their products in regards to weird nonstandard technologies.Storage is USB with no "oddball" restrictions. (Just lack of support for "oddball" configurations.)Cameras are USB UVC devicesWired headsets are USB audio compliantWireless headsets are BluetoothStandard USB keyboards/mice work fineThe internal hard drive is SATA and nothing (other than maybe power/thermal limits - is the stock hard drive 5400 RPM or 7200?) restricts you from putting a bigger one in.

I've actually been very pleasantly surprised by the system compared to what I expected prior to owning it. Without planning it, I have a massive pile of accessories for my PS3 which were bought for other purposes.

That only applies to the newer Slim version. however, they are just normal screws, easy to obtain. Nothing special.

But yeah, they fitted the "softer" screws to avoid people from damaging the thread on the HD from being idiotic. That was a common issue they observed fromt he earlier PS3, Joe sixpacks ripping the threads on the HDD due to overtightening, or misalignment.

Except the shitty-quality screws Sony uses in the HDD caddy. Chances are you'll strip one minimum while changing the HDD.

Try using a jewelers screwdriver set (you know, the ones made for tiny screws) and you won't have any problems at all. Frankly, it's scary (and sad) to watch those YouTube videos where people are using their 8" Phillips head screwdriver to work with small parts.

Microsoft's guidelines prevent 360 games from shipping with standard USB devices for game input, including but not limited to USB joysticks, USB/bluetooth mice/keyboard(UT3 supports keyboard/mouse input, FWIW; UT for PS2 did the same thing.), etc.

The only reason I bought an xbox was for windows media center. I have played maybe 3 hours of games on it since I purchased it. I tried mythtv with the original xbox, but it just wasn't as elegant.
There just isnt a media center out there that is as good as windows media center in terms of the look and feel....there are some solutions out there that contain more functionality though.

One strange thing that the 360 supports: If you plug an iPod into the USB port, it recognizes it and lets you have almost complete control in playing music from it through the 360. I'm not 100% positive but I'm pretty sure it plays purchased AAC files not just MP3. If you plug an iPod into a PS3, it thinks it is an unknown USB device. You would think that the PS3 could get the MP3 files off the iPod but that doesn't seem to work.

The more accurate term would probably be "revision" rather than "version".

With the limited exception of assimilating certain things that used to be optional extras as they become cheap(eg. original PS2 had ethernet as an add-on module, by the time the PS2 slim came around, an embedded NIC was much more sensible than an option port), console makers don't really have much incentive to change specs too often, since they are generally trying to cut costs over the console's lifetime, and avoid fragmentation of the market.

However, while substantial spec changes are comparatively rare, and have historically proven to be a bad idea, most consoles go through numerous revisions(some fairly subtle, and visible only to people who care about inspecting motherboards in detail, others quite visible for marketing purposes, like the new PS3 design) that leave the specs largely the same +/- a few nonessential peripherals; but aim at reducing production costs and correcting flaws in older designs.

Processor speeds are increasing. However they are irrelevant for most home-and-garden computer varieties. Heck, I actively look for processors that have less power and are smaller for home (Mac Mini vs. Mid-Tower).

I also work with a biomedics lab and I'm actively looking for a "quiet" 4-way or 8-way workstation which can also fit a couple of nVidia Tesla's - something you need a 1.5-2kW power supply for. I'm waiting for the new Xeon's to come out first though since they think the current generation 2-way qu

Now that they (the consoles) have established a beachhead with digital printing presses (online digital media stores) the need for new hardware becomes less and less. We arent going to see a truly new console for at least 5 more years. Even then its going to be an iteration with full backwards compatibility, rather then full out innovation and all new hardware/software
Simply put, the software they have now is good enough to make A LOT of money so there is no pressure for new hardware.

to a certain degree yes, but as i pointed out, i have two 360s, and i need to move my profile from machine to machine (along with saves). The only easy way to do this is to have the profile and saves on a memory card, which are frickin expensive.

Also, not all 360's come with a hard drive, the arcade/core version have no hard drive (later arcades come with built in 256mb flash). And again.. If you want to move around profiles/saves on the xbox, a memory card is the only easy way to do it (for profiles you co

as i pointed out, i have two 360s, and i need to move my profile from machine to machine (along with saves). The only easy way to do this is to have the profile and saves on a memory card, which are frickin expensive.

Why not just detach the hard drive and transfer it? They're external modules, designed to be easily removed and replaced. I'll admit I've not tried this - perhaps it doesn't work - but this seems like the logical approach.

Does this means i can use my simple USB stick instead of a memory card to keep my savegames on? (i have two xboxes, so i need portability)

What I would like to know if they'd support memory card readers. I can play music on Xbox 360 off USB drives, but not SD memory cards through an USB card reader... which is a little bit silly, because to my Linux box, the card reader just shows up as a yet another USB mass storage device. (I haven't tried the photo app on 360, which sounds like it could conceivably support card readers.)

Either MS just killed their memorycard business,

And good riddance to that! Console-specific memory cards suck, standard card formats rule! I cheered when I found out that

Microsoft stopped supporting memory cards in their in-store kiosks awhile back which would indicate their interest in supporting them on the console would probably be waning. I'm not surprised. Also, where does one find a 16.5 GB USB thumb drive?

Actually, once you've lost space to the various cache partitions the 360 wishes to have to speed up your loading, and the ones that are required to offer compatibility on XBox 1 games, the useable partition for saves / installs / whatever on a 20Gb 360 drive is only about 13.5 Gb. So this isn't as bad as it sounds.

For comparison I've upgraded my PS3 with a 320GB internal drive for installing games and recording TV, and I regularly connect up external USB drives to transfer media or save games. Any FAT32 formatted drive works, including my 500GB Passport.

Although given how rife savegame hacking is on the PS3, it does demonstrate that MS aren't _completely_ talking out of their backside when they claim this is why they have until now not liked third-party memory units. I'm guessing there will be some barriers to playing around with the data in these custom partitions.

Any online game that allows a savegame hack to affect online play violates the "do not trust the client... EVER." mantra.

Violating that mantra almost always leads to crap multiplayer with rampant cheating for one reason or another. When I first saw Crysis' description of why they separated DX10 players from DX9 (more powerful systems to perform physics calculations on, implying that world physics was *offloaded to the client*) I was worried that multiplayer was going to have some cheating problems. Boy was I right... I played multiplayer for about a week then uninstalled Crysis. It's NOT good when someone can change one XML file and make their pistol bullets do 9999999 damage and their vehicles immune to all weapons fire.

Maybe it has changed, but for a long time, most games had "dedicated" servers.

Yes, you had to trust the server admin, but at least they would have incentive to "play honest" - otherwise no one would use their server. Since dedicated server admins usually have a bit more invested into hosting a server (in terms of bandwidth, etc), they're less likely to screw around.

Client-side cheaters, on the other hand, can be douchebaggy on any server.

Were you only playing single-player titles, I couldn't care in the least, although it does rather indicate why people don't care about Trophies as much as they do Achievements. When you use it to create an unfair advantage in multiplayer games, it reminds me of the worth of my Live subscription fee.

The problem isn't that it's just you. Namely, achievements on the 360 are a big thing. They're competitive, and a bit of a status symbol (before anybody starts yelling at me about that let me just say that I'm stating it like it is - my 360 hasn't been turned on in over a month and my game collection is pretty small - about 8 games total). If you can hack your savegames, then you can "earn" achievements on Xbox Live that you didn't technically earn. That gives you an unfair advantage against others in t

Some games do restrict copying of savegames. Others don't. I don't see why it should matter anyway, it's up to the player if they want to miss out on half of the game by cheating.. personally I don't usually mess around with cheats until I've completed the game properly.

Games are not allowed to be controllable via mouse/keyboard although the system does support them for entering text etc. The PS3 is the same, FYI. There are a number of reasons for the restriction, some good some bad.

You're right, it does. That's why I said "...actually be able to control games". But is it the developers or is it that MS never built it in to the SDK? I would think that MS would rather keep their PC and console games separate so hardcore gamers are forced to stick with PC because that's more potential revenue for them. Maybe some software developers out there know the answer to this...

In TFA, they asked Heck whether the 16GB limit is a technological limitation of file systems or a deliberate choice.
It seems pretty obvious to me that it's artificial and meant to protect their disk drive market. Considering that USB devices will, unlike now, be trusted storage where one can write DLC, XBLA games and even full game installs and GOD, there's no reason why one would use an externally powered USB drive instead of a small pendrive. That would mean 100$ for a 1TB drive, going in the drive maker's pockets, instead of 100$ for a 120GB drive, going in MS's pockets.

There's a program out now for the iPhone via an external cydia repo that emulates a usb drive at whatever size and specs you like. It's all stored in a virtual container. Let them set this up however they like - emulating that setup on the iphone will happen in 3, 2,...

When I first read about this, I thought that I'd finally be able to use my NTFS formatted FreeAgent external drive on my 360. Too bad this isn't the case. It's ironic that the 360 doesn't seem to be able to use external drives formatted using the same file system being used in current Windows operating systems.

When MS dropped the hammer on Datel's large, 3rd party memory cards, they said they had to do it since those devices allowed cheating. That is, they were read/writable from non-Xboxes since they used SD cards for storage and thus you could easily mod saves.

How does MS square that with this action? This device is read/writeable from non-Xboxes since it's regular USB, isn't it?

I personally never believed that MS' actions were for any reason other than to protect their revenue stream. But can't really go back on their story now, can they? Can Datel sue over something like this if they do?

Hmm. That's an interesting point. But if the Xbox can write the data in an encrypted form, then that means the Xbox knows the encryption key and thus it can be extracted and put into software on a PC to write it and presumably read it too.

The extraction may be difficult (in fact I would expect it to be), but it's possible to do so.

They could address the issue by using encryption, checksums, and so forth. Of course, they could have done that for third-party cards too, but if they weren't planning to support externally read/write-capable devices they wouldn't have had a need for security on the data. Now that they are adding such support, it's *possible* that they will also add such encryption.

The 360 needs two cable card readers and the ability to plug in HUGE USB storage devices (1tb HHDs for example). Two cable card readers in the thing and people would start to wonder why they would by a stand alone DVR at all. The 360 has always been just one or two upgrades away from being the perfect home entertainment center. I think the only thing left is cablecard readers and USG mass storage.

Microsoft has managed a profit on the 360 by screwing consumers over at every corner. They have the only paid net service which has no browser so you're tied into what they want you to see. You have to buy wifi seperately at an insane cost. Same with upgrading your hard drive. You can only use their special hard drive which funnily enough costs way more than it should.

Despite their year lead and their supposed superior list of games the PS3 has zoomed up on their ass and has a slim chance of over taking